Tongues of the Moon

"What?" said Broward. "Where in hell do you think we can go?"

"I've been pla

Moshe made a strangled sound, but he kept his eyes on the viewplates. By then, they were out of the tower and rising towards the surface. Broward said, "We've four seats.. That means that, if we're to make any speed, we have to go into stasis. It's a good thing we got rid of the other guard. If we hadn't, where would we have put him?"

"I know," she said. "I was pla

"You're a cool one," said Broward. "What do we do about..." he looked at the man's name, on the label over the right breast... "Schwartz?"

"You have two choices and two only," she said to Schwartz. '"You can throw in your lot completely with us, forget forever about Pyotr. Or you can be put down on the surface. We can't take you back there. Nor, even if you succeeded in overpowering us and taking the ship back yourself, could you go back. Pyotr would think the ship would be an enemy, and he'd shoot first and investigate later."

Schwartz, a handsome youth with curly brown hair and big brown eyes, said, "I don't have any choice if I want to live. You know I'd die horribly if you put me down on the outside."

"You're still living," said Moshe. "All right, Katashkina, you must have something in mind."

"I had thought that you would be the one to say where we will go," she replied.

Moshe smiled as if he had known what she would say. "When I first saw you, I thought that God had shown me the way. He had chosen me, not because I was the best but because I was the only. Rather, he had chosen me as the half of a tool. The other was missing, and I did not know where it was. Then, I was sent here, and I found you. I rejoiced. I also was miserable. Despite myself, I was being forced to accept a role I didn't want. First, human beings insisted that I was a Jew. Them, I could fight against. But when God Himself, a God I told myself I hadn't believed in, when God insisted, then I surrendered. Here was a Jewess. One like me, perhaps, a woman who didn't want the role any more than I did but who was being turned into a path not of her own choosing by something greater than she."

"There is no voice out of the burning bush," continued Moshe. "There doesn't have to be. I've been shown things that have unmistakably pointed the way and told me what I was to do. I didn't want to; I rebelled; I scoffed at myself and at God. Yet, the... still small voice... call it what you will, told me."

"I know. Just as I knew that you would come and just as I knew what I would have to do when you came."

"I'm not even sure of all the ceremonies, the traditions," said Moshe. "I've forgotten much. And we don't have the Book."

"There's one on the ship," she said. "As a psychology officer, I had access to many things forbidden to the public. So, I placed the Book in the storage hold when I came aboard to make an official investigation. I wasn't questioned about the things I was doing here."

"And we have food enough for two for several months," he said.

"What can you do?" asked Broward.

"We're not going to Mercury or to Ganymede. Sooner or later, Scone is going to get into contact with them. If he found me there... it's true that there are caverns on Ganymede, but it would take a lot of equipment to furnish the means for living in them. And there's always the chance that the others there might find us.

"Now, there must be many places on Earth that have not been wrecked, underground places, I mean. And there is enough equipment on Earth, scattered here and there but still retrievable. And if the equipment is radioactive, we can decontaminate it. So..."

Ten hours later, they were in a place made to order, capitalized Made To Order, as Moshe said, and prepared for them. It was one of the thousands of undersea stations established by the U.S.S.W. for the little colonies of sea-farmers engaged in harvesting the sea and raising food for the billions of mouths of the once overcrowded world. This was a few miles off the coast of Israel; it was still functioning, even if the occupants, for some reason, had left The tanks in which many different species of fish and various aquatic mammals were kept were filled with living creatures. These would have been dead in a day or two, but the arrival of the human beings saved them.

"We can make it now," said Moshe. "And our sons and daughters can make it. Some day, we... they... can return to the surface, and can resume life on the soil of the Promised Land. Did you ever see such luck? Or is it just luck? You can laugh, Broward, but there is a Hand in this."

"I won't laugh," said Broward. "I don't feel like it. But what about me? I don't want to stay here. My life is up on the Moon. What about Schwartz? If you and Katashkina let me go back, and you know you can trust me, what about Schwartz?"

"Just worry about yourself. Katashkina and I will take care of him. We have to find a woman for him, and we can do that, for there must be more than one sea-farm with survivors. How do you like that? Man will some day come forth' from the sea, just as he did millions of years ago, only this time he won't have to evolve. And off the coast of Palestine will come forth the submarine Hebrews. How do you like that?" And he laughed.

"Be serious for a while. I want to talk about me."

"I am serious. I am most serious when I laugh. All right, we'll talk about you. Wait until I find out what Schwartz is doing. I don't want to wonder what he's up to while we're in a conference."

Three hours later, Broward left the sea-farm in the scout craft. He rose through the smoke-filled atmosphere and, once above it, flew visually and with manual controls until he had put 1,000,000 kilometers between himself and Earth. Then, he set up the codes that would tell the automatic navigational equipment to determine the present parameters of the craft and the Moon and to tape the flight plan to bring him back to Clavius. He did not forget to punch in an emergency plan in case of unexpected but possible contingencies during the return.

However, nothing happened. He was challenged, and he replied with the correct code and landed at the proper berth. Once he had left the ship and entered the office of the sergeant on duty, he knew that the situation had changed very much since his departure.

"I got a line for you to Scone," said the sergeant. "It's a private one."

Broward took the phone and said, "Broward here, sir."

"Did you get the bomb?" said Scone. He sounded as if every second counted.

"Yes, sir. Only Yamanuchi isn't with me." There was a pause, then Scone said, "What happened?" "We had an accident while we were getting the bomb out."

"Very well. You can give me the details later. When we have time. Just now the important thing is that you did get back with the bomb... even if you are late. Another half hour, you wouldn't have made it. The Axe would have had it, or they would have destroyed you and the bomb before they knew what a valuable prize you would have made."

"They're on the way here?"

"Yes. One of our autoscouts flashed the warning. A big fleet. Too big for us. So, we're evacuating."

"Where are we going, sir?"

"The sergeant will give you the proper instructions. Thanks for coming through with the bomb, Broward. But I knew that if anyone could do it, you could."

There was silence; he had been cut off. He wondered if Scone was not disappointed that the accident had happened to Yamanuchi instead of to him. More than probably. But the man of stone would accept the fact as a fact and would make his plans accordingly.